Study Desk

Now the LORD said to Moses, "Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction."

And he said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Remember that Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a legal matter, let him go to them."

The glory and brilliance of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day God called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

"Tell the children of Israel to take an offering for Me. From every man whose heart moves him [to give willingly] you shall take My offering.

[olive] oil for lighting, balsam for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,

onyx stones and setting stones for the [priest's] ephod and for the breastpiece.

"Have them build a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.

"You shall cast four gold rings for it and attach them to the four feet, two rings on either side.

"There I will meet with you; from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, I will speak [intimately] with you regarding every commandment that I will give you for the Israelites.

"You shall make a rim of a hand width around it; you shall make a gold border for the rim around it.

"You shall make four gold rings for it and fasten them at the four corners that are on the table's four legs.

"The rings shall be close against the rim as holders for the poles to carry the table.

"You shall make its plates [for the showbread] and its cups [for incense] and its pitchers and bowls for sacrificial drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold.

"Three cups shall be made like almond blossoms, each with a calyx and a flower on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms on the other branch with a calyx and a flower—so for the six branches coming out of the lampstand;

"A calyx shall be under the first pair of branches coming out of it, and a calyx under the second pair of branches coming out of it, and a calyx under the third pair of branches coming out of it, for the six branches coming out of the lampstand.

"You shall make a third covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a fourth covering above that of porpoise skins.

"Then you shall make the boards for the tabernacle of acacia wood, standing upright [as a trellis-like frame].

"Make two dovetails in each board for fitting [them] together; you shall do the same for all the tabernacle boards.

"You shall make the boards for the tabernacle [in the following quantities]: twenty boards for the south side.

"You shall make forty silver sockets under the twenty boards, two sockets under each board for its two dovetails, and two sockets under another board for its two dovetails;